I pointed at the screen LAUGHING when Aerith was both alive and dead: "Okay OG fans, you were right, you win. Aerith fans, please don't leave! She'll live if you pay for the Zack and Aerith Expansion!"
I liked Remake, but didn’t love it - had way too much filler. At least the filler was more optional in Rebirth, but the main quest wqs sooo padded out. I just wanted it to be over. Throw in how they botched Aertith’s “death,” and I’m not comjng back for part 3. I’ll just play the OG in 2027 to celebrate 30 years.
ofc. Suspense of building up Sephiroth. A relatively basic story with intricate storytelling. 3 main characters - Cloud, Aerith and Sephiroth. All of them with a plot twist and huge depth. Other side characters also equaly deep... Masterpiece.
I feel your pain As much as I love the Final Fantasy 7 world I've gotta say this new remake trilogy left me apathetic. I thought the ending of Remake jumped the shark hard. I thought they had some interesting ambitions, but just I don't trust them to pull off the execution. The most impactful moments from the original game were sanitized and lacked the impact they once had and Sepiroth was completely stripped of all intrigue and complexity. Too bad there isn't really a multiverse where we got a faithful adaptation to the original
@@redbearington3345 Same. I just read the plot summary on Rebirth, and that was all I needed to know that this trilogy will never be for me. I'll stick to the OG with mods.
@obsessive_hermit a lot of rebirth and remake frustrate me in that they prove they could have made an amazing remake of FF7. They have it in them to do, they just chose not to. All the reasons they state and the defenses fans offer are also easily proven false just by looking at successful remakes to come out recently, or even the parts of these games that people get excited for during announcements and which parts they don't.
Yeah folks if you didn't like what they did in remake you'll be devastated with what they do in rebirth. They botched the death of Aerith HARD. to the point where I was confused by what even happened.
@obsessive_hermit Nice seeing you here Hermit. I like your review on Remake. I would like to see a review on FF 13, but I wouldn't want you to relive that trauma
Ok, yours is the first review that I actually respect and consider it to be fair as it can be without any attacking of the fan base for FF7 including the purists and the non purist fans very nice video with a balanced review
I knew going into this game that the rebirth ending would be some bullshit like we got. I knew this because that's what we got in remake. I fully expected it. That's what happens when you go into timeline/multiverse bs.
The hardest line in this game was when Zack said “what the hell is going on” and I felt that in my soul. This line hit harder than aeriths death because we saved her, but we didn’t, but we did ? And now she’s a force ghost ?
They somehow managed to merge 2 of the most overused tropes in media. The "I woke up and it was all a dream, or was it?!" + "Ghost companion that only the protagonist can see". These things have been done so much that I remember my teacher back in 1998 say not to write a short story using them. ☠️😭
trials was one of the great moments of the game; i wish we got more of those moments instead of 20 mini-games, gimmicky chocobos and pointless side quests with npcs
my biggest problem with remake is that they made the story incredibly convoluted for the sake of just telling the same story on a multiversal scale instead of the OG's planetary scale. which is completely pointless, as the last decade of multiverse narratives has showed us. so all the multiverse loops and hoops are pointless.
I also thought that the lack of reaction of cloud's mental health is nonsensical and also they still treat him as a leader and follow him wherever he goes lol hopefully next game cid will step up as a leader cause cloud is insane which I love but needs to be handled better
@@youhaveayds8975 Tifa definatly knows and Barret is "sort" of in the know that Cloud is not all there all the time, but i don't think he knows the depths of his issues, that Tifa does. I'm surprised Barret didn't beat the shit out Cloud after he attacked Tifa
I was wondering why we didn't get to play the actual scenes. Yuffies part was great. To quote a commenter, "Sonon had a better death than Aerith and we don't even know who he is!" @@ItsSVO
I am playing the PC version with the mods from 7th heaven. They look so much better with the Ninostyle textures. That should be considered a remake thanks to the modders.
Yeah I felt that same as you on most things. The over world was exhausting and tedious. Multiverse BS is maybe my most loathed plot device. And they totally dropped the ball on Aerith’s death scene. It’s too bad the ending left such a bad taste in my mouth because a lot of the plot heavy middle sections were really great. And all the build up about Zack only led to a bit fat pointless disappointment.
“Jenova’s illusions” Is taken to a very big extreme (Maybe cause she’s in the lifestream so it’s amplifying her power?) She’s like Aizen from Bleach with it (And sephi has Aizen’s demeanor) When I saw it playing out I figured it was mostly “jenova’s illusions” for cloud cause the cells but the events were still needlessly convoluted for the sake of mystery For all I know they’ll say Jenova’s illusions is what’s crafting this “timeline” thing and it’s all also BS that any reality we saw as Zack and Biggs and the dream sequence with Cloud and Aerith shipping in Midgar and what not was all just Jenova’s illusions to trick everyone into depression to “give in”
I appreciate how broken you sound from playing this game! Your unhinged giggling at your own confusion and disbelief at the insanity of the implications that are now drawn from the multiverse approach really capture how the rest of us feel!😂
This is very interesting. How you feel about Rebirth is very similar to how I felt when I first beat Remake 4 years ago - more baffled than intrigued and unsure if I'd even be playing Parts 2 and 3 due to a lack of emotional investment/immersion. I haven't played Rebirth - I've only seen some of the cutscenes from it and read the plot summary online (and I never will play it now because I have no interest in Crisis on Infinite Earths with an FFVII skin). However, a lot of the points which you make here are almost identical to many which I discussed in a video I made critiquing Remake's ending (and the 7R trilogy more generally) before Rebirth came out. Some of that video is a little bit dated (I thought they were doing a single, altered timeline ala Back to the Future before Rebirth confirmed the existence of a multiverse), but most of my points still stand even considering Rebirth's revelations. Feel free to check it out if you have the time and are interested! It's on my channel!
I will definitely need to check out your video. To be honest, I have dismissed criticism of Remake's ending as just purists whining for a long time, but I suppose now that I could also be considered one of those whining purists I should attempt to understand better why other people might have seen the writing on the wall. If Rebirth had ended perfectly, I would continue to dismiss criticism of Remake's ending. But now it seems like perhaps some people, not all, may have been on to something a few years before the rest of us.
Sephiroth being all too commonly seen makes him less scary for me than in the OG. Like, yeah we see how powerful he is personally, but we often fear the unknown and Seph in the OG was lesser seen, making him more like the "unknown" since we don't know how he will basically act or fight. His common appearance tend to make him less of a sinister man to me. They watered down some emotional parts such as the Aerith's death. Yeah it was a good portrayal how the blood was seen from the floor. But seeing how a multiverse could bring her back, kind of lessened the impact on me. I was ready to burst my eyes out, but instead of being emotional about her death, I was diverted to a multiverse. Multiverse was fine as a new plot for me, but it was not executed well IMO. Just my two cents.
Good video, you addressed a lot of my general issues as well. I’ll go in my depth of issues First off besides the convoluted multiverse shit my biggest issue was Cloud’s behavior or moreso the lack of reaction to it. In remake and first few chapters here it wasn’t particularly bad but here? They look like they go blind and deaf while Cloud is acting like an animal. It annoyed me especially when Cloud attacked Tifa and instead of using this chance to develop their relationship and also show the other party members become distrustful it’s forgotten about 10 minutes after it happened. I generally liked Cloud and Tifa’s relationship in remake and here but when that scene came and instead of Tifa waking up and showing any level of fear or distrust to her childhood friend who tried to murder her, she just starts talking about some childhood shit. I lost a lot of interest in their relationship since the writers clearly weren’t gonna do anything major until part 3 so why even have that scene of him attacking here in this game. Same for the party, absolutely nothing. Continued into the temple too. Cloud nearly gets everyone killed and no one bats an eye after. He gives Sephiroth the black materia and it’s forgotten about right after no one says anything. Breaks my immersion immensely in the second half of the game. Also we kinda have inverse opinions on Cid and Vincent I think Vincent while yes he didn’t do anything and was a bit weird. Cid’s personality was completely neutered and he doesn’t even feel like more than a pilot in this game. His personality in this game isn’t bad but it lacked that wild gruff charm he had. Weird decision Besides that just general stuff we agree on: minigames were too abundant, the world intel is a colossal waste of time that should be cut down, ending was a confusing mess and Zack was wasted. This game is so weird, it’s the best slightly above mediocre game I’ve played but it could’ve been something truly special. This game can pull off emotionally compelling moments and interesting character dynamics but just don’t? Really frustrating, and my hopes for part 3 are really low…
I think this is spot on. As someone who didn’t even play the original I found remake a little stretched and it hurt the story but it ended well. This one had so much more bloat (open world objectives, boring side missions and extending the story missions) it just killed it. Add in the fact the story becomes so convoluted by the end I was a little confused and man did they butcher Aerith’s death (something I did know was coming coz of spoilers 😅). They have killed any meaning of death in this game which reduces the stakes to 0. Briggs, Barret deaths etc as well. Honestly I gave the game 7/10 but whenever I think back I think I’m being generous with that score. If you took out Barret & Red 13’s back story missions I think the game would be a dud. Don’t get me started on the Cait Sith section, I was already fatigued by this point and nearly dropped it. Plus the story for me didn’t really go anywhere. I’m starting to wonder if you could just skip this game and play the first and the third one and you’d still know what was going on. I think it’s telling that you can watch what happened previously on this game for remake and it lasts all about two minutes. I bet the same will be done on the third game. They should have just made one game. Totally agree on multiverses. I think the MCU killed it off and people are still doing it… why?
Im glad im not the only one. I loved Remake it got me into Final fantasy franchise. But now Rebirth makes me wish I skipped this franchise. I have no attachments to the orginal story or characters. However, after Rebirth I wanna tell Square Enix pick a lane. Either do 1 to 1 remake or do something completely new because all this going back and forth is confusing. Also whats the point of spilting up the games? The story is 90 perfect OG with 10% new stuff. Now I gotta pay 210 dollars and wait 12 years for a complete story that is from the 90s. Whats the point? Its just a cash grab. Unfortunately I do believe we wont get a DLC for Rebirth but will get one for FF16. Thats what I heard from CZcams. However I could be wrong. Which is sad because Dirge of Cerberus stuff is only keeping me interested now. I hope they fix the secret ending from Dirge of Cerberus. Also its amazing to bring up Hojo. He is my 2nd favorite character. The first one is Sephiroth. When I completed Remake I wanted to learn more about the FF7 world. It was always intriguing that Hojo and Sephiroth where vauge in the OG story. Especially Hojo. Hojo and Jenova are actually the true villains in my opinion in FF7. Hojo was designed as a lesser antagonist. Basically a creepy old guy who knew way to much. In the Remake Trilogy they did design him to be more serious. Which im surprised that at the beach they just let him live after what he did. The beach scene is my favorite scene because its a WTF moment for me in gaming.
If you're interested in seeing the og story without playing the game, team four star did an abridged series of it that is more faithful to the plot than remake is. I love the og, but I think TFS actually did it better.
@tauriasstormshield499 I loved the TFS abriged version of FF7. There is also another team by Cloud Strife 8th. They did an abriged series, but it wasn't as good as TFS. Also, you should check out Echoes S Final Fantasy 7 mod it has voice acting and updated graphics for Playstation 1 standards. Also youtube has demakes of FF7 in SNES format. It's China Boot leg copies. There is a lot of FF7 stuff of youtube to watch. Oddly enough the stuff I just mentioned is how I got to know about FF7 without playing the OG game.
@@tauriasstormshield499 Been watching FF7 Machinabridged after seeing that abysmal ending of Rebirth. The fact, that a parody handled the story better than Rebirth is hilarious. 😅
Sorry that this is a long comment, but I was really engaged with your video. I had a very similar experience as you when I reached the end of this game. My thoughts have evolved since then, but it doesn't mean this reaction is any less valid. In fact, it reinforces my biggest criticism. You kind of touched on it, but there is such a focus on fueling the mystery and conversation at the end of both games that it takes away from the game you're playing in the moment. Like you, I didn't feel that way at the end of Remake because there was nothing to mess with at the end -- but I understand why it was negatively jarring for some people. For me, it wasn't because at the end of Midgar in the original, the party just... leaves. So adding this whole meta narrative mystery to the ending made it exciting. But the ending of this game is supposed to pack an emotional punch, and so because it focused on the multiversal mystery around that moment, it landed with a bit of an emotional thud. You're left thinking so hard about "what is happening? what am I seeing?" that you can't process any emotions because you don't even know what you're processing. I also agree that I was genuinely pissed at the party for not confronting Cloud in the Temple. It's one thing to ignore the guy having the occasional headache. I can even excuse the Gongaga stuff because I think only Tifa experienced it and she's famously forgiving of everyone -- and especially Cloud (if you rewatch, she and Cloud end up on some upper level together while the rest of the party are on ground level, so it's very possible they didn't see how Cloud behaved). But when he's talking like another person, zoning out, and saying shit like, "Death is a homecoming" then it's time to intervene. That's not even addressing him just generally being a dick to the entire party, including Aerith after a big emotional speech. Just like you, it felt like the party was meta-gaming and thinking, "Well, here comes the Sephiroth shit." That shouldn't be something they nod along to. It should deeply disturb them. THAT SAID... the party being weirdly accepting of Cloud's strange behavior was also in the OG. In the OG, he starts laughing to himself while looking at the mural in the Temple of the Ancients, beats the shit out of Aerith, and gives Sephiroth the Black Materia. Then he wakes up in Gongaga after Aerith leaves the party and Barret/Tifa say something like, "Come on, man, get yourself together. We need you. Aerith, the girl you just beat the shit out of, needs you too." It's like, "???" He's proven himself to be very unstable and dangerous, so that was always odd to me. It's just a bit less noticeable because of the blocky graphics and lack of voice acting. I thought Rebirth would fix that, but they just doubled down. Also, FINALLY someone mentioned how kinda boring the trials were. Maybe I put too much stock into the word "trials" -- as you also mentioned -- but I was also disappointed that it was basically just reliving traumatic memories that we all know -- some of which were just explained within this very game, like Barret's past. I've seen a lot of people say they loved it, but it felt like it didn't add anything I didn't already know. So all that said, here are my silver linings: I do think Cloud's mental state at the end of the game is interesting. For me, the journey to saving Cloud's mind was always the best part of FF7. Don't get me wrong, losing Aerith was emotional but the most memorable part of OG for me was discovering the truth about Cloud's past when he and Tifa are in the Lifestream. Weirdly, I thought they were going to give up that mystery because they released Crisis Core Reunion -- a game that fully spoils the truth about who Zack and Cloud are. But it seems like Rebirth is keeping that alive in some form. He remembers Zack now, but what he remembers is wrong. So I don't know where they are going with that part of Cloud's mystery, but seemingly the "truth" about what happened at the water altar will be also a big topic. I know they did some of the Lifestream Sequence with Tifa already, but there is still a lot to sort out about Cloud's mind and that generally happens fairly quickly after Aerith's death. So hopefully that all gets resolved in the first third of Part 3 -- or by the halfway point at the latest -- so that we can get to whatever the Sephiroth endgame is. They also spent a lot of time reinforcing that Jenova/Sephiroth (aka Jenovaroth) is famous for shapeshifting. Jenova did it in the past to the Cetra. Jenovaroth is doing it to Rufus by appearing to him as Glenn (who is dead) in order to puppeteer the new Shinra/Wutai war. Jenovaroth tries to convince Cloud that Tifa is a Jenova imposter. So, I do think there is a fascinating opportunity for Jenova to pretend to be appearing to Cloud as Lifestream Aerith in order to mess with his head some more. We'll see if they do that. I also don't know where they are going with this, but one thing I've picked up on after rewatching a million times is that Aerith seems to be wanting to reassure Cloud so he isn't as broken about her death. Obviously, it haunts him all the way to Advent Children in the OG compilation. Aerith seems to be trying to undo that. And the reason seems to be because she is working against Sephiroth's plan. Sephiroth has been wanting to get Cloud angry for two games now. In Remake, when he says, "Hold on to the hatred." In Rebirth, when he hugs him and says, "fill your hollow heart with rage." But Aerith's meta-game is working against that. He isn't grieving now. In fact, when the final Jenova fight starts after her death, everyone has automatic limit break because they're angry, but Cloud is the only party member without a limit break because he's at peace with what's happening. Do I know the implications of that Aerith plan to regulate Cloud's emotions? I don't know, maybe some "Kingdom Hearts shit." I never played KH but from what I've heard of it, it sounds like it deals with manifestations of our heart and stuff like that. Anyway, this has been way too long of a comment. Long story short, I do think there are interesting things they've set up for Part 3 but it kind of came at the expense of the emotional impact of Aerith's death. And seemingly, that's intentional from Aerith. It may be interesting over the arc of the 3 games, but it's a bit unsatisfying for Rebirth on its own. And that is a dangerous trade-off for a trilogy of games asking people to pay up for one more installment. I can maybe forgive it a bit because I'm spending weeks trying to unpack what I saw, but 99.9999999999% will likely make that decision based on how they felt when credits rolled. And, from what I've seen so far, most people don't seem super excited about what comes next. What's funny about all of this is that I actually made a video a while back that theorized that the devs were taking the idea of Cloud as an Unreliable Narrator and replacing it with this meta-narrative that creates an "Unreliable World"... and that feels more correct than ever. The question is, at what cost? I thought it was so that there would be a compelling mystery even if we know the truth of what Cloud is being unreliable about, but in execution... it's pretty messy.
I too have been stewing on the ending and my thoughts since I made this. I generally don't feel any different as of yet, but I guess I'm not as actively angry anymore. I think you are correct about them wanting to focus more on Cloud's mental health and the idea of him being an unreliable narrator but you are also correct that it came at too great of a cost. There is a world or timeline out there somewhere where Square managed to have Aerith's death be impactful and not confusing, and also set up all this extra shit for the next game. But sadly, like the world where Cloud saved Aerith, we aren't living in that timeline.
@@dietrichrache1975 I remember always thinking the best end point for Rebirth would’ve been Cloud getting mindfucked by Sephiroth in the Whirlwind Maze, betraying the party, maybe being a boss fight himself, then giving Seph the black materia and getting lost to the Lifestream. In hindsight, that is still my preference. It’s a mindfuck scene already, so adding a big multiverse mystery to that would’ve fit in well. But adding that to the Aerith scene turns a moment that should be about making us FEEL into a moment where we’re too busy THINKING. Oh well…
The biggest issue i have with it is that theys shoehorned in these huge fights at the end of both games. Remake has the big action setpiece chase out of Midgar, then they throw in the Sephiroth interdimensional fight because of course we needed to have a Sephiroth fight. (We honestly did not. As a gamer the fight was awesome: But for the story, hell no.) If we needed a fight with Sephiroth, that should have occoured at the Shinra tower after Rufus. The rebirth fight should also have been before Aertiths demise in the sanctuary, we could have had the huge interdimensional, inter-timeline fight with the gang etc. And then after that battle we could have had Aerith go to the sanctuary, with the realisation of what she needs to do. That's when we could have gotten a scene with Cloud getting some flashbacks and "figured" out that Aerith was in danger and chased after her and cue the scene of her demise and then have the game end. Now when the third game comes out, they might surprise us with how they set up the story and then maybe how they ended Rebirth will make sense, but as of now it doesn't really.
The whole point is that Cloud overturned destiny just not in the present timeline in which we played. There is a version of Aerith of who survived these events and when the Reunion happens that Aerith will move to the main timeline and she will be alive.
These games have been very disrespectful. Obviously the OG fans have been severely disrespected. But new players as well. This isn't a great game for first timers. It's basically just stolen IP to make a completely different game without the risk of a story standing alone so they tried to offset the risk by using OG fans to comp their expense in making it. I went in to rebirth being fine with a multiverse story because I like sci-fi and I loved the OG FF7. So I was happy playing a new spin on the story. But they have so destroyed any sense of a coherent story. Not to mention, it's not even only multiverse, it's time travel too. So the whole story has just become nonsense
Aeris death is part of the overarching theme of og Final Fantasy VII..dealing with loss. That is *the whole* of FFVII. Themes of loss and moving past it, it's not just limited to Aeris death. Fans already did love FFVII as a whole, this is not FFVII. Just a Kindpgdom Hearts fanfic wearing it's skin.
Have your opinion but the ending was damn good if you picked up everything and pieced it together just because it isn’t what you wanted doesn’t make it bad you aren’t the deciding factor like your opinion means more than everyone else’s. It’s not coping if we pick up on everything and see how great this game was including the ending. Open your mind a little or get humble seems like you’re the one coping because you don’t like the ending. Don’t play it very simple.
100% agree. And fuck Chadley. I climbed 30+ towers. I did every dreaded side quest and open world event, and Chadley always interrupted any potential fun with his bs. The game made me hate Chadley and cut scenes so much that I just wanted the game to end by the time I reached chapter 12. I was mentally prepared for Tifa to die as it was hinted at multille times and then the ending just completely flatlines and makes me question why I wasted half of my experience on Chadley's analyze the rock repeat missions. The game is unreplayable with all the miniquests, unskippable run and listen to dialogue bits and endless time-waste gimmicks. And I know they will triple down all the bs for the next episode to make it all "bigger". Its sad cause Remake was 10/10 and I could feel the love from VAs and art department and the minmaxed load times and music... But just too much unnecessary bloat with an ending that made everything meaningless. Bleh... 5/10.
I actually do love rebirth. I can’t pull myself away from doing combat trials and things and actually went back after beating it to clean up the side quests. The locations and characters work really well. The problem is the story that’s the glue for all these things is TERRIBLE. It puts a stain on my experience that’s how bad it is. It’s more insulting that they basically remade the rest of the original technically speaking, but the thing that made it stand the test of time? They turned their noses up at it and thought “we can do better.” The hubris of doing that is just insane to me
Rebirth was amazing, but I have the same issues as you. They were marketing this game as an "unknown journey", and said that Zack would play a major role in this game. They put him on the cover too... They even said Sephiroth would be a protagonist... This game was 95% just like the original. Zack was barely there and did nothing. The game also doesn't answer the questions I had about remake. Like what does the 7 seconds mean? What does the white feather falling from the sky represent? Who is this "ore" Sephiroth at the end that talks like sane, human Sephiroth? Instead of answering this, this game just added more questions. The new plot elements took way too long to devellop. I expect part 3 to have the same issue as remake and rebirth. It will be 95% just like the original, but with a bunch of BS at the end that we don't understand. I was expecting some crazy plot twist honestly and I'm dissapointed a little bit, like they lied about their intention for the story. Now don't get me wrong, I absolutely loved rebirth for what it was! It is just not what I expected. Also yes, Hojo is a monster, and is the true villain of this game. Even Sephiroth is a victim of Hojo. He never learned the truth about his real origins and his real mother in the original, and that's a major plot hole for me. I wish they devellop that more in part 3, but honestly I have no more expectations. It's as if they want the story to be different, but they don't have the guts to do it, so overall it makes the story confusing.
I think the story going up to the ending was ok, like you said no one even questioning Cloud's sanity was stupid. I believe they did in og, Dyne's death was ruined, some little things like the changes from og was lame. Cid not being an asshole like og was lame. Vincent not playable was stupid, hes in the game for 3 chapters and they're at least 10 hours long together. Thats plenty of time to play around with him and post game stuff with him.
I agree with most of what you said here, in fact your opinion is extremely close to mine regarding everything except that i really just wanted a 1:1 Remake of the story with more stuff to tie better with Compilation and better character development and etc. Honestly, IF they wanted to use the second timeline as an excuse for Zack to join Cloud at the end or maybe even bring up Genesis again(due to Dirge of Cerberus's post credits scene) i'd be fine, as long they didn't used it as an excuse for Aerith to live and at the end having all of these changes be for the benefit of getting rid of Sephiroth once and for all and prevent humanity from eventually being purged by the planet on AC's continuity however a full blown multiverse within the Lifestream can make any shit they want be excusable and remove most of the stakes, Rebirth also completely messed up Sephiroth (which is my favorite character), while i didn't like how much he appeared on Remake, It wasn't that bad yet, he felt like a ghost from the future haunting Cloud and pulling the strings while everyone was just being his pawns and at the end it was pretty clear that he was holding back, of course this killed one of the aspects that made him so memorable on the OG that it was how he was presented and how they had a huge build up for him showing up and Rebirth took it even further showing him killing Midgar Zolom instead of just showing it impaled by him, but it wasn't as bad as Sephiroth being new a multiverse overlord that only talks in Cryptic Organization XIII dialogue style which has clearly failed on Part 2 that was supposed to be "Empire Strikes Back" according to Sakaguchi, now imagine if afther Vader told Luke that he was his father Luke fought against Vader alongside Obi-Wan's Force Ghost and afther Vader saying how he "underestimated" them he lost clearly going full on(Sephiroth runs away) and you're still supposed to find him as menacing when he came back on Return of the Jedi only to be ass kicked again, this is what they did with Sephiroth, yeah he will feel "menacing" when he goes Safer Sephiroth but it won't feel like he is strong as he's supposed to be since it's clear since Remake that Cloud and the others can stand up against Sephiroth pretty well, it plays down a lot what made him so special through the entirety of FF7 and its Compilation, it would've been way more interesting if the whole final battle with Cloud, Zack and Aerith against Seph was the final battle of Part 3 against Shirtless Sephiroth instead and Rebirth ended with Bizarro Sephiroth while Sephiroth leaves victorious as we're all confused due to Cloud's mind falling apart due to Aerith's death, i'd even say that they could've made Cloud's deflection on Sephiroth's attack having changed fate with Cloud actually being the one to hit Aerith and kill her (technically her fate would be the same but this would've played a even stronger damage to Cloud's psyche and allow Sephiroth to take further control on him), then on Part 3 Tifa and maybe Zack would play a role on fixing him and Cloud would have to deal with the burden of not being able to save Aerith, idk if this would be really that good but it could lead to more interesting dynamics between Sephiroth and Cloud and consequentially make the player feel even more the pain of what happened making this a heartwrecking end where the villain wins like Infinity War.
This whole shit show is because someone decided to combine FF7 with FF8. Lets take FF7 a great game, and combine it with the ambiguous ending of FF8. Take Triple Triad and call it something else. Instead of Laguna we get Zack. Multiple timelines going forwards and backwards, just like FF8. I could go on, but I think you get the point. Oh and then the whole Aerith is dead, or maybe she's not....we are two thirds through a trilogy and there is NO solid foundation, other than Sephiroth bad. And the worst part of all this - you can't possibly cram the rest of the game, the good parts into the next one. There's way too much ground to cover. But you wouldn't know that, because we got way too many mini games and side quests, Chadley quests, etc. Its just a mess, what they have done.
Good take. It's just so disappointing they chose not to give us the original story with all the great new gameplay advancements. Hard to hate them when so much of the last two games have been very enjoyable but how could anyone come away from this ending excited about part 3?
On the Rufus/Sarruf thing, spoilers obviously...but I'm sure it'll come out in Part 3. In the mobile game Before Crisis which most people haven't played/read up on, the reveal that Rufus did start/fund Avalanche as a way to eventually take over Shinra from his father is legit. Obviously it grew into more than that given groups like Barrett, but your reading of the conversation between him and Glen/Sephiroth/Jenova at end of the game is probably correct. It's interesting to hear people's takes who hated the ending, as I'm one who really liked it a lot and in ways it felt even more gut wrenching than the OG watching Cloud not being able to accept what happened. I've also found a significant divide in how people reacted to it between 2 groups of OG players: Those that felt Aerith's death was the most important part of OG 7, and those that feel Cloud's journey to eventually un-break his mind and find himself is the actual main driving force of the game. Obviously there are many levels in between those two opinions, but I've noticed many who only played the OG after its initial release and were brought to it or up on it through the hype of Aerith's death being such a significant moment REALLY felt hard done not having the normal death scene with the water burial and such.
When I saw the Kingdom Hearts BS I knew the story was going to be garbage so at that point I was all about the gameplay only. Remake's gameplay was pretty average for the most part and it got some bad mandatory fillers in there as well. The reason the whispers were garbage is because they pollute the screen. What is the point of making prettier GFX if I can't see shit? I'd rather play OG with GFX mods then. Also open world with clunky auto-snap "climbing" is not my idea of fun navigation. I like GTA because driving in that open world is fun and challenging. I'm a simple man. If I'm not playing this game for the story, combat or open world, then what is the point? If I want puzzle style ARPG combat, I play the superior CrossCode. If I want open world with meaningful, fun, engaging and challenging navigation I play Xenoblade Chronicles X or Sunset Overdrive. If I want story, I can play literally any game with coherent storytelling and narrative stakes like the OG FF7. I'm not a super huge fan of OG FF7. It's good but it's not on my top FF games list. But I still have compelling reasons to replay that whereas I'm done with this Kingdom Hearts trilogy.
You don't have a problem with Cid? Dude. His entire character behavior and story arch has been changed. And not for the better. They turned him into just another bland, happy, go-get-em attitude cringe lord. He used to be cool and angry and hot headed. He used to have a reason to want to fight Shinra. They have given him no reason why he should have joined the party in this game. They just place him there completely arbitrarily. No talk of his rocket or Sheila. Nothing about Shinra ruining his career or chance to get to outerspace. No, they switch to this stupid white knight nonsense that was so embarrassing that I actually, physically, cringed in real life while that first scene with him played out. Cid and Ifalna? What happened to Professor Ghast? I thought Ghast and Ifalna were in love? I thought they ended up having a child together and naming her Aeris? I thought they hid from Shinra at Icicle Inn until Hojo found them, killed Ghast, and took Ifalna and Aeris as test subjects. This wasn't Cid. This was some cheap knockoff, bland, marketing and DEI approved version of Cid because he was "too mean to women" in the original. Because women can't handle anyone who doesn't kiss the ground they walk on these days apparently.
6:14 Only thing is end of the game. They're obviously looking at Cloud sideways now. No one trust him, not even Tifa. And she's always the most sympathetic to him due to her love for him
Crazy that it took them that long to realize he’s crazy when he tried to kill Tifa in Gongaga💀 but at least I really hope part 3 makes the party actively aware and talk about Cloud’s behavior because if not they’ll just look dumb again
@@rocafella142 I truly don’t get it, I understand Tifa has love for Cloud but not to the point of ignoring a murder attempt after calling her a liar and impostor. Same for all the others there who witnessed it. That part really dropped my immersion Personally I would change it so after that scene Cloud gets yelled at by the party and held at gun point by Barret. when Tifa wakes up he’s not there. Preferring to stay away from the guilt and shame he feels. And Tifa doesn’t approach him because she’s still confused and scared on what just happened. Have the conversation they have in Gongaga be moved to Nibelheim (where it would make more sense than Tifa randomly babbling about their childhood instead of the attempted murder and all the shit she saw in the LS). This way it feels more realistic and not like the characters are just ignoring things because plot says so This doesn’t address all the other times the party ignores his blatant mental illness but it would fix one of the times.
This trilogy is what you get when you let "ideas guys" run the show without anyone keeping them under control. Without Sakaguchi, these writers are hacks.
like with everyone else, I also agree that the ending was a mess. they did exactly what remake did, have majority of the game be good and then have the ending be a complete mess. this was one scene they could not mess up, aerith's death was one if not the most iconic moment in gaming history, its what got ff7 up there as one of the best games. people that don't play games anymore could always recall that one fateful scene in ff7 which was sephiroth killing aerith. the whole set up to this moment is bad because Marlene gives away the whole scene, she tells Zack exactly what's going to happen so its already spoiled for the player, and its obvious the gamer now knows the death scene is going to change because it was spoiled for you already. and then we get to the city of the ancients and we got these stupid time ghosts, which so far has been the WORST addition to the game. these things are like annoying bugs that won't move away from your face. they are all over the screen, completing killing any emotion you're trying have before getting to see aerith's final pray. and then everything just goes to crap after that, I had the same reaction everyone else had. I'm just sitting there asking myself "is she dead? is she not dead? why are there so many boss fights? why is Zack fighting with cloud? is cloud hallucinating or is he able to see 2 realities at the same time? one with aerith dead and the other alive?" I will end with one simple question that other fans have asked, why make it so complicated? ff7 wasn't a super hard complex story, but they turned into one with all these multiverse crap and drastically changing characters fates. the devs said they wanted to respect the fans love for the game by trying to keep it as accurate to the original game as possible but storywise they have failed in doing that.
I think it all will hinge upon how they tie it all up in the third game, but i agree, Aeriths death was the one thing they couldn't fuck up and yet they did somehow. I personally think/wish/hope it was for a purpose, like that the third game will open with us seeing what actually happend and get to see her funeral. The theory is that the white wispers are being controlled by Aerith from the lifestream and is the one who pulled Zack into the place were he could help Cloud fight Sephiroth and she is trying to undo what Sephiroths black wispers are doing. But again: It all hinges on them actually delivering a logical conclusion in the third game. I think the overwhelming majority of fans would have still just preffered an actual remake and not a "remake/sequal". I personally, am optimisitic, but if they don't deliver a logical conclusion for what the hell is happening in the third game, then it will only end up sullying the remake trilogy.
@@dietrichrache1975 yes, soon as they finished Rebirth they went to work on part 3 apparently to get it out asap, and so will not be doing any more work on rebirth, including no DLC
The "event" should have occoured _after_ the final battle. God dammit, they even have Zack plead with Cloud to save her AFTER she's already been MAYBE killed, so as to give us the illusion that we can maybe save her. They throw it in, but don't show us the whole thing, ends up showing us what can either be Clouds fractured psyche imagining her alive ("Aerith wake up" and she seemingly does) or it is Cloud experiencing different timelines OR it is Aerith reaching out from the lifestream to try and insure Cloud that everythings ok. I cannot say that i hate how they did it, i just do not currently _understand_ why they did it the way they did it. I have to assume they will tie it all up and maybe open with her funeral in the next game, because i see no other reason for them to not include it as the actual ending of the game, unless it will be the _start_ of the next game. When i first heard they were making this remake and that it was going to be three parts with the first one ending after Midgar, i knew the second would end with Aeriths death. I agree, 90-95% of these 2 games so far are amazing (sure i have issues with the fact that Remake's Midgar city was pretty small, they could and _should_ have added more of the actual city to run around in but i'm nitpicking). The ending here was quite convoluded and unless the devs have _intentionally_ made this ending convulouded for the sake of an actual payoff in the third game: As is it Cloud's PTSD kicking in so he imagines her alive? Is it Aerith reaching out from the lifestream? (what i personally think anyways), is this an alternate Aerith, with Cloud now being able to see 2 timelines at once? In short: The questions we are left with that frustrate us has to be explained and laid out in a logical manner in the conclusion of the trilogy for this to not sully the games as a whole.
Ok I'm only 6 mins into the video but about the Tifa scene I think the party couldn't see it because the whispers were blocking their view. As for Tifa she kinda blindly in love with the guy so i can somewhat understand her reaction. But at the end you can tell Tifa and Barret don't really trust Cloud
Cid made sense. Vincent made no sense. I think they should have just gave him the Nanaki treatment in Remake and make him a non-playable character that assists us in battle from the sidelines just like backup party members. Or treat him like a summon and he can transform and help against Sephiroth
Ive beat this game yesterday and honestly while playing rebirth, i was thinking to myself that ff16 was better. Ff16 story was great to me and it had more epic fights and songs that was engaging. I kinda dont saying this about 7 rebirth.
I can't say I agree. Even with how aggressively offensive the ending of Rebirth was, I still think it was overall better than FF16. The story of FF16 stopped being good like half way through, the combat never hit the same way as the remake games for me, and while the Highs of 16 were incredible the lows were also spectacularly low. Rebirth is like 95% a master piece, depending on your tolerance for minigames and open world BS, while 16 is like 65% a good game and 35% a really boring one.
It be genius if the developers wanted you to be confused as to Aerith's death, in a way kinda looking at clouds perspective. Everyone starts with limitbreak after her death except for Cloud.
Say what you want about how you “feel” the ending was a “train wreck” this was still one of the greatest video games I’ve EVER played, hands down 🤷🏻♂️
@@Skadi.- it’s 90 percent the same story as the OG soooo yeah I liked the garbage story. I never said it didn’t have flaws, I think they definitely dropped the ball by not straight showing the iconic masamune through Aeriths belly. None of that changed the fact that I spent 100 hours playing one of the BEST games ever.
@@tiltedhaze The 10% that was changed completely destroys the themes of the original, and completely removes any stakes there may be. If you like this type of plot, there's literally dozens of other games and shows that have done it better.
The padding was so annoying. Screw the Far Cry/BotW radio towers, the chocobo finding quests, throwing boxes as cait sith etc. im glad im over this game
This is what happens when you want to renew something old and beloved with staunch defenders of the original. You do anything different and people get upset. They get upset for different reasons. They get upset because its too similar, because its too different, because they change a character, a game like FF7 if if wasn’t absolutely perfect which is nearly impossible, people are going to be upset because they love the original so much. It is what it is at the end of the day.
I don't really care that much about the OG and I still disliked the KH nonsense story in Remake and Rebirth. Bad writing is bad regardless of being a remake of an old product or not.
I really think remake rebirth and the next Re installment are 3 different universes . And we’re going to start out the next game on yet another timeline then they will merge all three with multiple different endings. One where Zack and aerith lives depending on your choices since the choice mechanic was made introduced in a more efficient way this time . But who fucking knows Japanese people a weird when it comes to this stuff
Thats an interesting idea. But I think there are several moments in this game where the cast confirms they did fight and defeat the Whispers so if they are different timelines then what is different?
What I don't understand is why people only see the ending as the part that's bad in this game. The whole entire game was drawn out way too much. Useless NPC dialog and fetch quests galore. Brainless region map side content (those stupid towers and painfully cringe protorelic quests). Useless enemy skill materia (which used to be my favorite materia and mechanic in the original) locked behind scanning enemies. Characters who don't act anywhere close to how they acted in the original (Cid and Cait sith). Cosmo canyon turning into a shinra backed tourist trap? Sephiroth being a completely impotent and boring villain. All of the Zach scenes that did absolutely nothing to further any story progression. Even the developers know this because once you beat the game, they give you the option to disable all the Zach scenes! The ending is just the rotten cherry on a shit cake. The whole thing was bad.
Interesting. This is a rare even keeled take. I thought it was fairly well done in the Remake as well. I liked this ending. It was a bit sloppy but I like the ambiguity in how they showed Aerith's death. I think this demos Cloud's psychosis. I'm doing a compilation of interviews for my channel. Would love to interview you and get your take to add to the compilation I'm creating.
I never played the original ff7 and I still didn't like rebirth. Part 1 was great with little flaws where part 2 had more flaws than great. Rebirth had some good moments but is full of boring filler with an empty open world. Sad to say I'm not looking forward to part 3
I bought a PS4 the day remake was announced as coming to playstation. I wanted a remaster, keeping the story but adding content. Like other remakes, new side quests, new end game dungeons etc. I really didn't like remake at all, I thought the story changes were inferior to the original by a large margin and bed sheets of fate made no sense. The combat was really basic, with the aerial parts badly implemented and the two other non-controlled characters using 5-10% of their potential and acting like FF1 NES villagers. The maps were very long and empty corridors. The summoning materia being changed from mana build ups over eons developing sentience into a little emo kid VR creations. To me, it shit on the original game and made massive leaps backwards. Doesn't bother me that people enjoy it, everyone allowed to enjoy what they enjoy and no one needs my blessing to enjoy it, but I'll never play it or any other the other installments.
I wanna like this game but the endless minigames, poor pacing, and general bloat is making it difficult. And yes replaying this game sounds like a complete chore.
Doesnt cloud almost beat aerith to death in the original because he loses his mind? He is losing his mind currently on track with the original as well…
What Cloud does in the original was way worse than this. The original is way darker and more depressing. They wouldn't be able to do what the OG did these days.
So you see this is the issue with you Aerith fans. I mean she died in the OG game and was not playable till the end. We all cried for the loss, but that was the game. Since Remake though you guys expect Aerith to own the scene, make Tifa disappear somehow, get Cloud, get everything, stay alive and own Sephiroth. Start loving Final Fantasy VII as a whole and not just one of the characters. Multiverses. I disagree with them also. But there was no way we could go into a third game without them introducing the multiverses. Now noone knows what will happen. You don't know if Aerith lives or dies (well she is probably dead but that remains), you don't know how this will end up. That was the goal. Otherwise there would be no point waiting for the third installment.
I pointed at the screen LAUGHING when Aerith was both alive and dead: "Okay OG fans, you were right, you win. Aerith fans, please don't leave! She'll live if you pay for the Zack and Aerith Expansion!"
Sheesh
They weren’t brave enough to not kill her, but wanted to say they changed something.
finally, a sane person
actually, you said you loved remake, fuck you
I liked Remake, but didn’t love it - had way too much filler. At least the filler was more optional in Rebirth, but the main quest wqs sooo padded out. I just wanted it to be over. Throw in how they botched Aertith’s “death,” and I’m not comjng back for part 3. I’ll just play the OG in 2027 to celebrate 30 years.
OG FF7 will always be remembered as one of the greatest rpg games of all time. Hands down.
ofc. Suspense of building up Sephiroth. A relatively basic story with intricate storytelling. 3 main characters - Cloud, Aerith and Sephiroth. All of them with a plot twist and huge depth. Other side characters also equaly deep... Masterpiece.
I feel your pain
As much as I love the Final Fantasy 7 world I've gotta say this new remake trilogy left me apathetic. I thought the ending of Remake jumped the shark hard. I thought they had some interesting ambitions, but just I don't trust them to pull off the execution. The most impactful moments from the original game were sanitized and lacked the impact they once had and Sepiroth was completely stripped of all intrigue and complexity. Too bad there isn't really a multiverse where we got a faithful adaptation to the original
when I finished remake it killed any interest I had in playing Rebirth, and Rebirth well I just didnt care enough to be bothered by the ending.
@@redbearington3345 Same. I just read the plot summary on Rebirth, and that was all I needed to know that this trilogy will never be for me. I'll stick to the OG with mods.
@obsessive_hermit a lot of rebirth and remake frustrate me in that they prove they could have made an amazing remake of FF7. They have it in them to do, they just chose not to. All the reasons they state and the defenses fans offer are also easily proven false just by looking at successful remakes to come out recently, or even the parts of these games that people get excited for during announcements and which parts they don't.
Yeah folks if you didn't like what they did in remake you'll be devastated with what they do in rebirth. They botched the death of Aerith HARD. to the point where I was confused by what even happened.
@obsessive_hermit Nice seeing you here Hermit. I like your review on Remake. I would like to see a review on FF 13, but I wouldn't want you to relive that trauma
Ok, yours is the first review that I actually respect and consider it to be fair as it can be without any attacking of the fan base for FF7 including the purists and the non purist fans very nice video with a balanced review
Thanks!
This perfectly put into words how I felt about this.
I knew going into this game that the rebirth ending would be some bullshit like we got. I knew this because that's what we got in remake. I fully expected it. That's what happens when you go into timeline/multiverse bs.
The hardest line in this game was when Zack said “what the hell is going on” and I felt that in my soul. This line hit harder than aeriths death because we saved her, but we didn’t, but we did ? And now she’s a force ghost ?
They somehow managed to merge 2 of the most overused tropes in media. The "I woke up and it was all a dream, or was it?!" + "Ghost companion that only the protagonist can see". These things have been done so much that I remember my teacher back in 1998 say not to write a short story using them. ☠️😭
trials was one of the great moments of the game; i wish we got more of those moments instead of 20 mini-games, gimmicky chocobos and pointless side quests with npcs
Facts
FF3 and 4 on the fucking DS is better than the entirety of FF7R trilogy
my biggest problem with remake is that they made the story incredibly convoluted for the sake of just telling the same story on a multiversal scale instead of the OG's planetary scale.
which is completely pointless, as the last decade of multiverse narratives has showed us. so all the multiverse loops and hoops are pointless.
I also thought that the lack of reaction of cloud's mental health is nonsensical and also they still treat him as a leader and follow him wherever he goes lol hopefully next game cid will step up as a leader cause cloud is insane which I love but needs to be handled better
It's like Tifa and Barret know but they don't know how to go about it they always give eachother looks
@@youhaveayds8975 Tifa definatly knows and Barret is "sort" of in the know that Cloud is not all there all the time, but i don't think he knows the depths of his issues, that Tifa does.
I'm surprised Barret didn't beat the shit out Cloud after he attacked Tifa
@@MukationI'm glad he slapped him though at least
"They're not trials, they're just trauma."
Exactly my thoughts.
Worse, they were more fan service. Showing scenes we already know everything about and don’t need to see.
I was wondering why we didn't get to play the actual scenes. Yuffies part was great. To quote a commenter, "Sonon had a better death than Aerith and we don't even know who he is!" @@ItsSVO
I am playing the PC version with the mods from 7th heaven. They look so much better with the Ninostyle textures. That should be considered a remake thanks to the modders.
Yeah I felt that same as you on most things. The over world was exhausting and tedious. Multiverse BS is maybe my most loathed plot device. And they totally dropped the ball on Aerith’s death scene. It’s too bad the ending left such a bad taste in my mouth because a lot of the plot heavy middle sections were really great. And all the build up about Zack only led to a bit fat pointless disappointment.
trash ending, fanfiction level of writing
“Jenova’s illusions”
Is taken to a very big extreme (Maybe cause she’s in the lifestream so it’s amplifying her power?)
She’s like Aizen from Bleach with it (And sephi has Aizen’s demeanor)
When I saw it playing out I figured it was mostly “jenova’s illusions” for cloud cause the cells but the events were still needlessly convoluted for the sake of mystery
For all I know they’ll say Jenova’s illusions is what’s crafting this “timeline” thing and it’s all also BS that any reality we saw as Zack and Biggs and the dream sequence with Cloud and Aerith shipping in Midgar and what not was all just Jenova’s illusions to trick everyone into depression to “give in”
I appreciate how broken you sound from playing this game! Your unhinged giggling at your own confusion and disbelief at the insanity of the implications that are now drawn from the multiverse approach really capture how the rest of us feel!😂
This is very interesting. How you feel about Rebirth is very similar to how I felt when I first beat Remake 4 years ago - more baffled than intrigued and unsure if I'd even be playing Parts 2 and 3 due to a lack of emotional investment/immersion.
I haven't played Rebirth - I've only seen some of the cutscenes from it and read the plot summary online (and I never will play it now because I have no interest in Crisis on Infinite Earths with an FFVII skin). However, a lot of the points which you make here are almost identical to many which I discussed in a video I made critiquing Remake's ending (and the 7R trilogy more generally) before Rebirth came out. Some of that video is a little bit dated (I thought they were doing a single, altered timeline ala Back to the Future before Rebirth confirmed the existence of a multiverse), but most of my points still stand even considering Rebirth's revelations. Feel free to check it out if you have the time and are interested! It's on my channel!
I will definitely need to check out your video. To be honest, I have dismissed criticism of Remake's ending as just purists whining for a long time, but I suppose now that I could also be considered one of those whining purists I should attempt to understand better why other people might have seen the writing on the wall. If Rebirth had ended perfectly, I would continue to dismiss criticism of Remake's ending. But now it seems like perhaps some people, not all, may have been on to something a few years before the rest of us.
Ugh… this game…
I keep wanting to play through the OG again recently. I think, just to clear my palette. Rebirth left a really bad taste in my mouth.
Sephiroth being all too commonly seen makes him less scary for me than in the OG. Like, yeah we see how powerful he is personally, but we often fear the unknown and Seph in the OG was lesser seen, making him more like the "unknown" since we don't know how he will basically act or fight. His common appearance tend to make him less of a sinister man to me.
They watered down some emotional parts such as the Aerith's death. Yeah it was a good portrayal how the blood was seen from the floor. But seeing how a multiverse could bring her back, kind of lessened the impact on me. I was ready to burst my eyes out, but instead of being emotional about her death, I was diverted to a multiverse. Multiverse was fine as a new plot for me, but it was not executed well IMO. Just my two cents.
Sephiroth is a joke
Good video, you addressed a lot of my general issues as well. I’ll go in my depth of issues
First off besides the convoluted multiverse shit my biggest issue was Cloud’s behavior or moreso the lack of reaction to it. In remake and first few chapters here it wasn’t particularly bad but here? They look like they go blind and deaf while Cloud is acting like an animal. It annoyed me especially when Cloud attacked Tifa and instead of using this chance to develop their relationship and also show the other party members become distrustful it’s forgotten about 10 minutes after it happened. I generally liked Cloud and Tifa’s relationship in remake and here but when that scene came and instead of Tifa waking up and showing any level of fear or distrust to her childhood friend who tried to murder her, she just starts talking about some childhood shit. I lost a lot of interest in their relationship since the writers clearly weren’t gonna do anything major until part 3 so why even have that scene of him attacking here in this game. Same for the party, absolutely nothing. Continued into the temple too. Cloud nearly gets everyone killed and no one bats an eye after. He gives Sephiroth the black materia and it’s forgotten about right after no one says anything. Breaks my immersion immensely in the second half of the game.
Also we kinda have inverse opinions on Cid and Vincent I think Vincent while yes he didn’t do anything and was a bit weird. Cid’s personality was completely neutered and he doesn’t even feel like more than a pilot in this game. His personality in this game isn’t bad but it lacked that wild gruff charm he had. Weird decision
Besides that just general stuff we agree on: minigames were too abundant, the world intel is a colossal waste of time that should be cut down, ending was a confusing mess and Zack was wasted.
This game is so weird, it’s the best slightly above mediocre game I’ve played but it could’ve been something truly special. This game can pull off emotionally compelling moments and interesting character dynamics but just don’t? Really frustrating, and my hopes for part 3 are really low…
I think this is spot on. As someone who didn’t even play the original I found remake a little stretched and it hurt the story but it ended well. This one had so much more bloat (open world objectives, boring side missions and extending the story missions) it just killed it. Add in the fact the story becomes so convoluted by the end I was a little confused and man did they butcher Aerith’s death (something I did know was coming coz of spoilers 😅). They have killed any meaning of death in this game which reduces the stakes to 0. Briggs, Barret deaths etc as well. Honestly I gave the game 7/10 but whenever I think back I think I’m being generous with that score. If you took out Barret & Red 13’s back story missions I think the game would be a dud. Don’t get me started on the Cait Sith section, I was already fatigued by this point and nearly dropped it. Plus the story for me didn’t really go anywhere. I’m starting to wonder if you could just skip this game and play the first and the third one and you’d still know what was going on. I think it’s telling that you can watch what happened previously on this game for remake and it lasts all about two minutes. I bet the same will be done on the third game. They should have just made one game. Totally agree on multiverses. I think the MCU killed it off and people are still doing it… why?
Im glad im not the only one. I loved Remake it got me into Final fantasy franchise. But now Rebirth makes me wish I skipped this franchise. I have no attachments to the orginal story or characters. However, after Rebirth I wanna tell Square Enix pick a lane. Either do 1 to 1 remake or do something completely new because all this going back and forth is confusing. Also whats the point of spilting up the games? The story is 90 perfect OG with 10% new stuff. Now I gotta pay 210 dollars and wait 12 years for a complete story that is from the 90s. Whats the point? Its just a cash grab.
Unfortunately I do believe we wont get a DLC for Rebirth but will get one for FF16. Thats what I heard from CZcams. However I could be wrong. Which is sad because Dirge of Cerberus stuff is only keeping me interested now. I hope they fix the secret ending from Dirge of Cerberus.
Also its amazing to bring up Hojo. He is my 2nd favorite character. The first one is Sephiroth. When I completed Remake I wanted to learn more about the FF7 world. It was always intriguing that Hojo and Sephiroth where vauge in the OG story. Especially Hojo. Hojo and Jenova are actually the true villains in my opinion in FF7. Hojo was designed as a lesser antagonist. Basically a creepy old guy who knew way to much. In the Remake Trilogy they did design him to be more serious. Which im surprised that at the beach they just let him live after what he did. The beach scene is my favorite scene because its a WTF moment for me in gaming.
If you're interested in seeing the og story without playing the game, team four star did an abridged series of it that is more faithful to the plot than remake is. I love the og, but I think TFS actually did it better.
@tauriasstormshield499
I loved the TFS abriged version of FF7. There is also another team by Cloud Strife 8th. They did an abriged series, but it wasn't as good as TFS.
Also, you should check out Echoes S Final Fantasy 7 mod it has voice acting and updated graphics for Playstation 1 standards.
Also youtube has demakes of FF7 in SNES format. It's China Boot leg copies.
There is a lot of FF7 stuff of youtube to watch. Oddly enough the stuff I just mentioned is how I got to know about FF7 without playing the OG game.
@@tauriasstormshield499
Been watching FF7 Machinabridged after seeing that abysmal ending of Rebirth. The fact, that a parody handled the story better than Rebirth is hilarious. 😅
Remake was better this open world was too damn big and lacked any soul or purpose
Sorry that this is a long comment, but I was really engaged with your video. I had a very similar experience as you when I reached the end of this game. My thoughts have evolved since then, but it doesn't mean this reaction is any less valid. In fact, it reinforces my biggest criticism.
You kind of touched on it, but there is such a focus on fueling the mystery and conversation at the end of both games that it takes away from the game you're playing in the moment. Like you, I didn't feel that way at the end of Remake because there was nothing to mess with at the end -- but I understand why it was negatively jarring for some people. For me, it wasn't because at the end of Midgar in the original, the party just... leaves. So adding this whole meta narrative mystery to the ending made it exciting. But the ending of this game is supposed to pack an emotional punch, and so because it focused on the multiversal mystery around that moment, it landed with a bit of an emotional thud. You're left thinking so hard about "what is happening? what am I seeing?" that you can't process any emotions because you don't even know what you're processing.
I also agree that I was genuinely pissed at the party for not confronting Cloud in the Temple. It's one thing to ignore the guy having the occasional headache. I can even excuse the Gongaga stuff because I think only Tifa experienced it and she's famously forgiving of everyone -- and especially Cloud (if you rewatch, she and Cloud end up on some upper level together while the rest of the party are on ground level, so it's very possible they didn't see how Cloud behaved). But when he's talking like another person, zoning out, and saying shit like, "Death is a homecoming" then it's time to intervene. That's not even addressing him just generally being a dick to the entire party, including Aerith after a big emotional speech. Just like you, it felt like the party was meta-gaming and thinking, "Well, here comes the Sephiroth shit." That shouldn't be something they nod along to. It should deeply disturb them.
THAT SAID... the party being weirdly accepting of Cloud's strange behavior was also in the OG. In the OG, he starts laughing to himself while looking at the mural in the Temple of the Ancients, beats the shit out of Aerith, and gives Sephiroth the Black Materia. Then he wakes up in Gongaga after Aerith leaves the party and Barret/Tifa say something like, "Come on, man, get yourself together. We need you. Aerith, the girl you just beat the shit out of, needs you too." It's like, "???" He's proven himself to be very unstable and dangerous, so that was always odd to me. It's just a bit less noticeable because of the blocky graphics and lack of voice acting. I thought Rebirth would fix that, but they just doubled down.
Also, FINALLY someone mentioned how kinda boring the trials were. Maybe I put too much stock into the word "trials" -- as you also mentioned -- but I was also disappointed that it was basically just reliving traumatic memories that we all know -- some of which were just explained within this very game, like Barret's past. I've seen a lot of people say they loved it, but it felt like it didn't add anything I didn't already know.
So all that said, here are my silver linings: I do think Cloud's mental state at the end of the game is interesting. For me, the journey to saving Cloud's mind was always the best part of FF7. Don't get me wrong, losing Aerith was emotional but the most memorable part of OG for me was discovering the truth about Cloud's past when he and Tifa are in the Lifestream. Weirdly, I thought they were going to give up that mystery because they released Crisis Core Reunion -- a game that fully spoils the truth about who Zack and Cloud are. But it seems like Rebirth is keeping that alive in some form. He remembers Zack now, but what he remembers is wrong. So I don't know where they are going with that part of Cloud's mystery, but seemingly the "truth" about what happened at the water altar will be also a big topic. I know they did some of the Lifestream Sequence with Tifa already, but there is still a lot to sort out about Cloud's mind and that generally happens fairly quickly after Aerith's death. So hopefully that all gets resolved in the first third of Part 3 -- or by the halfway point at the latest -- so that we can get to whatever the Sephiroth endgame is.
They also spent a lot of time reinforcing that Jenova/Sephiroth (aka Jenovaroth) is famous for shapeshifting. Jenova did it in the past to the Cetra. Jenovaroth is doing it to Rufus by appearing to him as Glenn (who is dead) in order to puppeteer the new Shinra/Wutai war. Jenovaroth tries to convince Cloud that Tifa is a Jenova imposter. So, I do think there is a fascinating opportunity for Jenova to pretend to be appearing to Cloud as Lifestream Aerith in order to mess with his head some more. We'll see if they do that.
I also don't know where they are going with this, but one thing I've picked up on after rewatching a million times is that Aerith seems to be wanting to reassure Cloud so he isn't as broken about her death. Obviously, it haunts him all the way to Advent Children in the OG compilation. Aerith seems to be trying to undo that. And the reason seems to be because she is working against Sephiroth's plan. Sephiroth has been wanting to get Cloud angry for two games now. In Remake, when he says, "Hold on to the hatred." In Rebirth, when he hugs him and says, "fill your hollow heart with rage." But Aerith's meta-game is working against that. He isn't grieving now. In fact, when the final Jenova fight starts after her death, everyone has automatic limit break because they're angry, but Cloud is the only party member without a limit break because he's at peace with what's happening. Do I know the implications of that Aerith plan to regulate Cloud's emotions? I don't know, maybe some "Kingdom Hearts shit." I never played KH but from what I've heard of it, it sounds like it deals with manifestations of our heart and stuff like that.
Anyway, this has been way too long of a comment. Long story short, I do think there are interesting things they've set up for Part 3 but it kind of came at the expense of the emotional impact of Aerith's death. And seemingly, that's intentional from Aerith. It may be interesting over the arc of the 3 games, but it's a bit unsatisfying for Rebirth on its own. And that is a dangerous trade-off for a trilogy of games asking people to pay up for one more installment. I can maybe forgive it a bit because I'm spending weeks trying to unpack what I saw, but 99.9999999999% will likely make that decision based on how they felt when credits rolled. And, from what I've seen so far, most people don't seem super excited about what comes next.
What's funny about all of this is that I actually made a video a while back that theorized that the devs were taking the idea of Cloud as an Unreliable Narrator and replacing it with this meta-narrative that creates an "Unreliable World"... and that feels more correct than ever. The question is, at what cost? I thought it was so that there would be a compelling mystery even if we know the truth of what Cloud is being unreliable about, but in execution... it's pretty messy.
I too have been stewing on the ending and my thoughts since I made this. I generally don't feel any different as of yet, but I guess I'm not as actively angry anymore. I think you are correct about them wanting to focus more on Cloud's mental health and the idea of him being an unreliable narrator but you are also correct that it came at too great of a cost. There is a world or timeline out there somewhere where Square managed to have Aerith's death be impactful and not confusing, and also set up all this extra shit for the next game. But sadly, like the world where Cloud saved Aerith, we aren't living in that timeline.
@@dietrichrache1975 I remember always thinking the best end point for Rebirth would’ve been Cloud getting mindfucked by Sephiroth in the Whirlwind Maze, betraying the party, maybe being a boss fight himself, then giving Seph the black materia and getting lost to the Lifestream.
In hindsight, that is still my preference. It’s a mindfuck scene already, so adding a big multiverse mystery to that would’ve fit in well. But adding that to the Aerith scene turns a moment that should be about making us FEEL into a moment where we’re too busy THINKING. Oh well…
The biggest issue i have with it is that theys shoehorned in these huge fights at the end of both games.
Remake has the big action setpiece chase out of Midgar, then they throw in the Sephiroth interdimensional fight because of course we needed to have a Sephiroth fight.
(We honestly did not. As a gamer the fight was awesome: But for the story, hell no.) If we needed a fight with Sephiroth, that should have occoured at the Shinra tower after Rufus.
The rebirth fight should also have been before Aertiths demise in the sanctuary, we could have had the huge interdimensional, inter-timeline fight with the gang etc. And then after that battle we could have had Aerith go to the sanctuary, with the realisation of what she needs to do.
That's when we could have gotten a scene with Cloud getting some flashbacks and "figured" out that Aerith was in danger and chased after her and cue the scene of her demise and then have the game end.
Now when the third game comes out, they might surprise us with how they set up the story and then maybe how they ended Rebirth will make sense, but as of now it doesn't really.
The whole point is that Cloud overturned destiny just not in the present timeline in which we played. There is a version of Aerith of who survived these events and when the Reunion happens that Aerith will move to the main timeline and she will be alive.
These games have been very disrespectful. Obviously the OG fans have been severely disrespected. But new players as well. This isn't a great game for first timers. It's basically just stolen IP to make a completely different game without the risk of a story standing alone so they tried to offset the risk by using OG fans to comp their expense in making it. I went in to rebirth being fine with a multiverse story because I like sci-fi and I loved the OG FF7. So I was happy playing a new spin on the story. But they have so destroyed any sense of a coherent story. Not to mention, it's not even only multiverse, it's time travel too. So the whole story has just become nonsense
I wonder if modders will be able to do a cut scene edit to look like OG
Aeris death is part of the overarching theme of og Final Fantasy VII..dealing with loss.
That is *the whole* of FFVII. Themes of loss and moving past it, it's not just limited to Aeris death.
Fans already did love FFVII as a whole, this is not FFVII.
Just a Kindpgdom Hearts fanfic wearing it's skin.
Everyone i see defending the end of rebirth is without a doubt coping. It just wasn’t good, period.
Everyone I’ve seen degrading it with a closed mine is incompetent and just couldn’t get what they were seeing.
Have your opinion but the ending was damn good if you picked up everything and pieced it together just because it isn’t what you wanted doesn’t make it bad you aren’t the deciding factor like your opinion means more than everyone else’s. It’s not coping if we pick up on everything and see how great this game was including the ending. Open your mind a little or get humble seems like you’re the one coping because you don’t like the ending. Don’t play it very simple.
100% agree. And fuck Chadley. I climbed 30+ towers. I did every dreaded side quest and open world event, and Chadley always interrupted any potential fun with his bs. The game made me hate Chadley and cut scenes so much that I just wanted the game to end by the time I reached chapter 12. I was mentally prepared for Tifa to die as it was hinted at multille times and then the ending just completely flatlines and makes me question why I wasted half of my experience on Chadley's analyze the rock repeat missions.
The game is unreplayable with all the miniquests, unskippable run and listen to dialogue bits and endless time-waste gimmicks. And I know they will triple down all the bs for the next episode to make it all "bigger".
Its sad cause Remake was 10/10 and I could feel the love from VAs and art department and the minmaxed load times and music... But just too much unnecessary bloat with an ending that made everything meaningless.
Bleh... 5/10.
I actually do love rebirth. I can’t pull myself away from doing combat trials and things and actually went back after beating it to clean up the side quests. The locations and characters work really well. The problem is the story that’s the glue for all these things is TERRIBLE. It puts a stain on my experience that’s how bad it is. It’s more insulting that they basically remade the rest of the original technically speaking, but the thing that made it stand the test of time? They turned their noses up at it and thought “we can do better.” The hubris of doing that is just insane to me
Ff7 remakes are trash
Rebirth was amazing, but I have the same issues as you. They were marketing this game as an "unknown journey", and said that Zack would play a major role in this game. They put him on the cover too... They even said Sephiroth would be a protagonist... This game was 95% just like the original. Zack was barely there and did nothing. The game also doesn't answer the questions I had about remake. Like what does the 7 seconds mean? What does the white feather falling from the sky represent? Who is this "ore" Sephiroth at the end that talks like sane, human Sephiroth? Instead of answering this, this game just added more questions. The new plot elements took way too long to devellop. I expect part 3 to have the same issue as remake and rebirth. It will be 95% just like the original, but with a bunch of BS at the end that we don't understand. I was expecting some crazy plot twist honestly and I'm dissapointed a little bit, like they lied about their intention for the story. Now don't get me wrong, I absolutely loved rebirth for what it was! It is just not what I expected.
Also yes, Hojo is a monster, and is the true villain of this game. Even Sephiroth is a victim of Hojo. He never learned the truth about his real origins and his real mother in the original, and that's a major plot hole for me. I wish they devellop that more in part 3, but honestly I have no more expectations. It's as if they want the story to be different, but they don't have the guts to do it, so overall it makes the story confusing.
I think the story going up to the ending was ok, like you said no one even questioning Cloud's sanity was stupid. I believe they did in og, Dyne's death was ruined, some little things like the changes from og was lame. Cid not being an asshole like og was lame. Vincent not playable was stupid, hes in the game for 3 chapters and they're at least 10 hours long together. Thats plenty of time to play around with him and post game stuff with him.
I agree with most of what you said here, in fact your opinion is extremely close to mine regarding everything except that i really just wanted a 1:1 Remake of the story with more stuff to tie better with Compilation and better character development and etc.
Honestly, IF they wanted to use the second timeline as an excuse for Zack to join Cloud at the end or maybe even bring up Genesis again(due to Dirge of Cerberus's post credits scene) i'd be fine, as long they didn't used it as an excuse for Aerith to live and at the end having all of these changes be for the benefit of getting rid of Sephiroth once and for all and prevent humanity from eventually being purged by the planet on AC's continuity however a full blown multiverse within the Lifestream can make any shit they want be excusable and remove most of the stakes, Rebirth also completely messed up Sephiroth (which is my favorite character), while i didn't like how much he appeared on Remake, It wasn't that bad yet, he felt like a ghost from the future haunting Cloud and pulling the strings while everyone was just being his pawns and at the end it was pretty clear that he was holding back, of course this killed one of the aspects that made him so memorable on the OG that it was how he was presented and how they had a huge build up for him showing up and Rebirth took it even further showing him killing Midgar Zolom instead of just showing it impaled by him, but it wasn't as bad as Sephiroth being new a multiverse overlord that only talks in Cryptic Organization XIII dialogue style which has clearly failed on Part 2 that was supposed to be "Empire Strikes Back" according to Sakaguchi, now imagine if afther Vader told Luke that he was his father Luke fought against Vader alongside Obi-Wan's Force Ghost and afther Vader saying how he "underestimated" them he lost clearly going full on(Sephiroth runs away) and you're still supposed to find him as menacing when he came back on Return of the Jedi only to be ass kicked again, this is what they did with Sephiroth, yeah he will feel "menacing" when he goes Safer Sephiroth but it won't feel like he is strong as he's supposed to be since it's clear since Remake that Cloud and the others can stand up against Sephiroth pretty well, it plays down a lot what made him so special through the entirety of FF7 and its Compilation, it would've been way more interesting if the whole final battle with Cloud, Zack and Aerith against Seph was the final battle of Part 3 against Shirtless Sephiroth instead and Rebirth ended with Bizarro Sephiroth while Sephiroth leaves victorious as we're all confused due to Cloud's mind falling apart due to Aerith's death, i'd even say that they could've made Cloud's deflection on Sephiroth's attack having changed fate with Cloud actually being the one to hit Aerith and kill her (technically her fate would be the same but this would've played a even stronger damage to Cloud's psyche and allow Sephiroth to take further control on him), then on Part 3 Tifa and maybe Zack would play a role on fixing him and Cloud would have to deal with the burden of not being able to save Aerith, idk if this would be really that good but it could lead to more interesting dynamics between Sephiroth and Cloud and consequentially make the player feel even more the pain of what happened making this a heartwrecking end where the villain wins like Infinity War.
This whole shit show is because someone decided to combine FF7 with FF8. Lets take FF7 a great game, and combine it with the ambiguous ending of FF8. Take Triple Triad and call it something else. Instead of Laguna we get Zack. Multiple timelines going forwards and backwards, just like FF8. I could go on, but I think you get the point. Oh and then the whole Aerith is dead, or maybe she's not....we are two thirds through a trilogy and there is NO solid foundation, other than Sephiroth bad. And the worst part of all this - you can't possibly cram the rest of the game, the good parts into the next one. There's way too much ground to cover. But you wouldn't know that, because we got way too many mini games and side quests, Chadley quests, etc. Its just a mess, what they have done.
Good take. It's just so disappointing they chose not to give us the original story with all the great new gameplay advancements. Hard to hate them when so much of the last two games have been very enjoyable but how could anyone come away from this ending excited about part 3?
By the end of REMAKE I think it’s safe to say we knew the next two installments will no longer be the same game NOR the same story.
On the Rufus/Sarruf thing, spoilers obviously...but I'm sure it'll come out in Part 3. In the mobile game Before Crisis which most people haven't played/read up on, the reveal that Rufus did start/fund Avalanche as a way to eventually take over Shinra from his father is legit. Obviously it grew into more than that given groups like Barrett, but your reading of the conversation between him and Glen/Sephiroth/Jenova at end of the game is probably correct.
It's interesting to hear people's takes who hated the ending, as I'm one who really liked it a lot and in ways it felt even more gut wrenching than the OG watching Cloud not being able to accept what happened. I've also found a significant divide in how people reacted to it between 2 groups of OG players: Those that felt Aerith's death was the most important part of OG 7, and those that feel Cloud's journey to eventually un-break his mind and find himself is the actual main driving force of the game. Obviously there are many levels in between those two opinions, but I've noticed many who only played the OG after its initial release and were brought to it or up on it through the hype of Aerith's death being such a significant moment REALLY felt hard done not having the normal death scene with the water burial and such.
When I saw the Kingdom Hearts BS I knew the story was going to be garbage so at that point I was all about the gameplay only. Remake's gameplay was pretty average for the most part and it got some bad mandatory fillers in there as well.
The reason the whispers were garbage is because they pollute the screen. What is the point of making prettier GFX if I can't see shit? I'd rather play OG with GFX mods then.
Also open world with clunky auto-snap "climbing" is not my idea of fun navigation. I like GTA because driving in that open world is fun and challenging.
I'm a simple man. If I'm not playing this game for the story, combat or open world, then what is the point? If I want puzzle style ARPG combat, I play the superior CrossCode. If I want open world with meaningful, fun, engaging and challenging navigation I play Xenoblade Chronicles X or Sunset Overdrive. If I want story, I can play literally any game with coherent storytelling and narrative stakes like the OG FF7.
I'm not a super huge fan of OG FF7. It's good but it's not on my top FF games list. But I still have compelling reasons to replay that whereas I'm done with this Kingdom Hearts trilogy.
28:08 facts
You don't have a problem with Cid? Dude. His entire character behavior and story arch has been changed. And not for the better. They turned him into just another bland, happy, go-get-em attitude cringe lord. He used to be cool and angry and hot headed. He used to have a reason to want to fight Shinra. They have given him no reason why he should have joined the party in this game. They just place him there completely arbitrarily. No talk of his rocket or Sheila. Nothing about Shinra ruining his career or chance to get to outerspace. No, they switch to this stupid white knight nonsense that was so embarrassing that I actually, physically, cringed in real life while that first scene with him played out. Cid and Ifalna? What happened to Professor Ghast? I thought Ghast and Ifalna were in love? I thought they ended up having a child together and naming her Aeris? I thought they hid from Shinra at Icicle Inn until Hojo found them, killed Ghast, and took Ifalna and Aeris as test subjects.
This wasn't Cid. This was some cheap knockoff, bland, marketing and DEI approved version of Cid because he was "too mean to women" in the original. Because women can't handle anyone who doesn't kiss the ground they walk on these days apparently.
It's interesting how more people didnt review it in this way. Reviewers are gushing at the moment.
6:14 Only thing is end of the game. They're obviously looking at Cloud sideways now. No one trust him, not even Tifa. And she's always the most sympathetic to him due to her love for him
Crazy that it took them that long to realize he’s crazy when he tried to kill Tifa in Gongaga💀 but at least I really hope part 3 makes the party actively aware and talk about Cloud’s behavior because if not they’ll just look dumb again
@@jlit5215 right! It was crazy to me how that was not talked about after she woke up in Gongaga..
@@rocafella142 I truly don’t get it, I understand Tifa has love for Cloud but not to the point of ignoring a murder attempt after calling her a liar and impostor. Same for all the others there who witnessed it. That part really dropped my immersion
Personally I would change it so after that scene Cloud gets yelled at by the party and held at gun point by Barret. when Tifa wakes up he’s not there. Preferring to stay away from the guilt and shame he feels. And Tifa doesn’t approach him because she’s still confused and scared on what just happened. Have the conversation they have in Gongaga be moved to Nibelheim (where it would make more sense than Tifa randomly babbling about their childhood instead of the attempted murder and all the shit she saw in the LS). This way it feels more realistic and not like the characters are just ignoring things because plot says so
This doesn’t address all the other times the party ignores his blatant mental illness but it would fix one of the times.
I was listening to this having walk outside 7 am lmao fun
I agree w everything u said loll, as on og kill me. The scene they made sounds good on paper but bad to execute
This trilogy is what you get when you let "ideas guys" run the show without anyone keeping them under control. Without Sakaguchi, these writers are hacks.
like with everyone else, I also agree that the ending was a mess. they did exactly what remake did, have majority of the game be good and then have the ending be a complete mess. this was one scene they could not mess up, aerith's death was one if not the most iconic moment in gaming history, its what got ff7 up there as one of the best games. people that don't play games anymore could always recall that one fateful scene in ff7 which was sephiroth killing aerith. the whole set up to this moment is bad because Marlene gives away the whole scene, she tells Zack exactly what's going to happen so its already spoiled for the player, and its obvious the gamer now knows the death scene is going to change because it was spoiled for you already.
and then we get to the city of the ancients and we got these stupid time ghosts, which so far has been the WORST addition to the game. these things are like annoying bugs that won't move away from your face. they are all over the screen, completing killing any emotion you're trying have before getting to see aerith's final pray. and then everything just goes to crap after that, I had the same reaction everyone else had. I'm just sitting there asking myself "is she dead? is she not dead? why are there so many boss fights? why is Zack fighting with cloud? is cloud hallucinating or is he able to see 2 realities at the same time? one with aerith dead and the other alive?"
I will end with one simple question that other fans have asked, why make it so complicated? ff7 wasn't a super hard complex story, but they turned into one with all these multiverse crap and drastically changing characters fates. the devs said they wanted to respect the fans love for the game by trying to keep it as accurate to the original game as possible but storywise they have failed in doing that.
I think it all will hinge upon how they tie it all up in the third game, but i agree, Aeriths death was the one thing they couldn't fuck up and yet they did somehow. I personally think/wish/hope it was for a purpose, like that the third game will open with us seeing what actually happend and get to see her funeral.
The theory is that the white wispers are being controlled by Aerith from the lifestream and is the one who pulled Zack into the place were he could help Cloud fight Sephiroth and she is trying to undo what Sephiroths black wispers are doing. But again: It all hinges on them actually delivering a logical conclusion in the third game.
I think the overwhelming majority of fans would have still just preffered an actual remake and not a "remake/sequal". I personally, am optimisitic, but if they don't deliver a logical conclusion for what the hell is happening in the third game, then it will only end up sullying the remake trilogy.
They already said that rebirth will have no DLC.
But also welcome to realizing this would all go nowhere
Wait really? Thats hard to believe, just from a financial perspective it seems like leaving money on the table
@@dietrichrache1975 yes, soon as they finished Rebirth they went to work on part 3 apparently to get it out asap, and so will not be doing any more work on rebirth, including no DLC
@@dietrichrache1975 They said the same thing for FF16 and still made DLC. Maybe it's a marketing ploy for when they drop rebirth DLC.
The "event" should have occoured _after_ the final battle. God dammit, they even have Zack plead with Cloud to save her AFTER she's already been MAYBE killed, so as to give us the illusion that we can maybe save her. They throw it in, but don't show us the whole thing, ends up showing us what can either be Clouds fractured psyche imagining her alive ("Aerith wake up" and she seemingly does) or it is Cloud experiencing different timelines OR it is Aerith reaching out from the lifestream to try and insure Cloud that everythings ok.
I cannot say that i hate how they did it, i just do not currently _understand_ why they did it the way they did it. I have to assume they will tie it all up and maybe open with her funeral in the next game, because i see no other reason for them to not include it as the actual ending of the game, unless it will be the _start_ of the next game. When i first heard they were making this remake and that it was going to be three parts with the first one ending after Midgar, i knew the second would end with Aeriths death.
I agree, 90-95% of these 2 games so far are amazing (sure i have issues with the fact that Remake's Midgar city was pretty small, they could and _should_ have added more of the actual city to run around in but i'm nitpicking).
The ending here was quite convoluded and unless the devs have _intentionally_ made this ending convulouded for the sake of an actual payoff in the third game: As is it Cloud's PTSD kicking in so he imagines her alive? Is it Aerith reaching out from the lifestream? (what i personally think anyways), is this an alternate Aerith, with Cloud now being able to see 2 timelines at once?
In short: The questions we are left with that frustrate us has to be explained and laid out in a logical manner in the conclusion of the trilogy for this to not sully the games as a whole.
Half of this game felt like a chore to get thru, whether that's with the world intel, mini games, and BS VR challenges
Can't really complain about Sephiroth using an iconic move like Heartless Angel
Ok I'm only 6 mins into the video but about the Tifa scene I think the party couldn't see it because the whispers were blocking their view. As for Tifa she kinda blindly in love with the guy so i can somewhat understand her reaction. But at the end you can tell Tifa and Barret don't really trust Cloud
Cid made sense. Vincent made no sense. I think they should have just gave him the Nanaki treatment in Remake and make him a non-playable character that assists us in battle from the sidelines just like backup party members. Or treat him like a summon and he can transform and help against Sephiroth
Ive beat this game yesterday and honestly while playing rebirth, i was thinking to myself that ff16 was better. Ff16 story was great to me and it had more epic fights and songs that was engaging. I kinda dont saying this about 7 rebirth.
I can't say I agree. Even with how aggressively offensive the ending of Rebirth was, I still think it was overall better than FF16. The story of FF16 stopped being good like half way through, the combat never hit the same way as the remake games for me, and while the Highs of 16 were incredible the lows were also spectacularly low. Rebirth is like 95% a master piece, depending on your tolerance for minigames and open world BS, while 16 is like 65% a good game and 35% a really boring one.
It be genius if the developers wanted you to be confused as to Aerith's death, in a way kinda looking at clouds perspective. Everyone starts with limitbreak after her death except for Cloud.
Cool idea with bad execution does not equal genius.
Say what you want about how you “feel” the ending was a “train wreck” this was still one of the greatest video games I’ve EVER played, hands down 🤷🏻♂️
you liked the garbage story😂
@@Skadi.- it’s 90 percent the same story as the OG soooo yeah I liked the garbage story. I never said it didn’t have flaws, I think they definitely dropped the ball by not straight showing the iconic masamune through Aeriths belly. None of that changed the fact that I spent 100 hours playing one of the BEST games ever.
Agreed. This game was incredible. The best combat from any rpg, and some killer mini games. Way better mini games than the original.
You haven't played many games then.
@@tiltedhaze The 10% that was changed completely destroys the themes of the original, and completely removes any stakes there may be. If you like this type of plot, there's literally dozens of other games and shows that have done it better.
The padding was so annoying. Screw the Far Cry/BotW radio towers, the chocobo finding quests, throwing boxes as cait sith etc. im glad im over this game
Omg same thoughts!!!
This game is everything people were calling Remake out for. Kingdom Hearts garbage. What a waste
This is what happens when you want to renew something old and beloved with staunch defenders of the original. You do anything different and people get upset. They get upset for different reasons. They get upset because its too similar, because its too different, because they change a character, a game like FF7 if if wasn’t absolutely perfect which is nearly impossible, people are going to be upset because they love the original so much. It is what it is at the end of the day.
I don't really care that much about the OG and I still disliked the KH nonsense story in Remake and Rebirth. Bad writing is bad regardless of being a remake of an old product or not.
I really think remake rebirth and the next Re installment are 3 different universes . And we’re going to start out the next game on yet another timeline then they will merge all three with multiple different endings. One where Zack and aerith lives depending on your choices since the choice mechanic was made introduced in a more efficient way this time . But who fucking knows Japanese people a weird when it comes to this stuff
Thats an interesting idea. But I think there are several moments in this game where the cast confirms they did fight and defeat the Whispers so if they are different timelines then what is different?
I had more fun hacking the og game with my game shark back in the day.
What I don't understand is why people only see the ending as the part that's bad in this game. The whole entire game was drawn out way too much. Useless NPC dialog and fetch quests galore. Brainless region map side content (those stupid towers and painfully cringe protorelic quests). Useless enemy skill materia (which used to be my favorite materia and mechanic in the original) locked behind scanning enemies. Characters who don't act anywhere close to how they acted in the original (Cid and Cait sith). Cosmo canyon turning into a shinra backed tourist trap? Sephiroth being a completely impotent and boring villain. All of the Zach scenes that did absolutely nothing to further any story progression. Even the developers know this because once you beat the game, they give you the option to disable all the Zach scenes! The ending is just the rotten cherry on a shit cake. The whole thing was bad.
Interesting. This is a rare even keeled take. I thought it was fairly well done in the Remake as well. I liked this ending. It was a bit sloppy but I like the ambiguity in how they showed Aerith's death. I think this demos Cloud's psychosis.
I'm doing a compilation of interviews for my channel. Would love to interview you and get your take to add to the compilation I'm creating.
Sounds like fun. Feel free to message me (is that still a thing on CZcams?) or just leave another comment letting me know.
I never played the original ff7 and I still didn't like rebirth. Part 1 was great with little flaws where part 2 had more flaws than great. Rebirth had some good moments but is full of boring filler with an empty open world. Sad to say I'm not looking forward to part 3
I bought a PS4 the day remake was announced as coming to playstation. I wanted a remaster, keeping the story but adding content. Like other remakes, new side quests, new end game dungeons etc. I really didn't like remake at all, I thought the story changes were inferior to the original by a large margin and bed sheets of fate made no sense. The combat was really basic, with the aerial parts badly implemented and the two other non-controlled characters using 5-10% of their potential and acting like FF1 NES villagers. The maps were very long and empty corridors. The summoning materia being changed from mana build ups over eons developing sentience into a little emo kid VR creations. To me, it shit on the original game and made massive leaps backwards.
Doesn't bother me that people enjoy it, everyone allowed to enjoy what they enjoy and no one needs my blessing to enjoy it, but I'll never play it or any other the other installments.
I wanna like this game but the endless minigames, poor pacing, and general bloat is making it difficult. And yes replaying this game sounds like a complete chore.
It's Japanese storytelling. Keep things vagues, be mysterious, confusing, and raise more questions than answers, because it's "deep" 😒
So? This proves only one thing - on yt smart people don't have much views. Insta subbed.
Doesnt cloud almost beat aerith to death in the original because he loses his mind? He is losing his mind currently on track with the original as well…
What Cloud does in the original was way worse than this. The original is way darker and more depressing. They wouldn't be able to do what the OG did these days.
@@lazygamer4746 what else does he do I dont remember its been a very long time
no way dynamic mode was easy mode. lol i played on dynamic and some of the bosses were bs
The last 30 minutes can not make the first 140 hours bad. Best combat in any jrpg, even better than the Grandia system, and that's saying something.
So you see this is the issue with you Aerith fans. I mean she died in the OG game and was not playable till the end. We all cried for the loss, but that was the game.
Since Remake though you guys expect Aerith to own the scene, make Tifa disappear somehow, get Cloud, get everything, stay alive and own Sephiroth.
Start loving Final Fantasy VII as a whole and not just one of the characters.
Multiverses. I disagree with them also. But there was no way we could go into a third game without them introducing the multiverses. Now noone knows what will happen. You don't know if Aerith lives or dies (well she is probably dead but that remains), you don't know how this will end up. That was the goal. Otherwise there would be no point waiting for the third installment.